Rape conviction rate zero, Senate body told

ISLAMABAD - Senator Syeda Sughra Imam on Thursday informed the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice that according to the data of Interior Ministry provided to the Senate, the conviction ratio in the rape cases in the country was zero per cent in the last five years.She said that due to the lacunas in the PPC, CRPC and Qanoon Shahdat Act no conviction was given in the rape cases.The meeting of the standing committee was held under the chairmanship of Senator Muhammad Kazim Khan in the Parliament House and discussed “the Anti-Rape Laws (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill 2014”.The committee directed the Ministry of Law and Justice, Interior Ministry and provincial Law Ministries to submit record that how many rape cases were filed and decided by the concerned authorities.The Committee also decided to hold a meeting of the Committee with members of Pakistan Bar Council, Presidents of High Court Bars and experts to discuss and amend the Anti-Rape Laws after seeking opinion from all stake holders.Raja Zafar-ul-Haq, Leader of the House in Senate and Member Committee said that in such cases it was an easy task to blame someone but very difficult to prove it.The Committee also considered the Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Amendment Bill 2014 moved by Senator Farhatullah Babar and directed the Ministry of Law to prepare a draft and discussed with Committee in this regard. Farhatullah Babar said that Academic institutions input should also be included in the said bill because a number of incidents of harassing students by teachers or male students are occurred in the universities and colleges.He said that the current law does not apply on the teacher and students so that to avoid from such incidents and providing security to students through this law is the need of the hour.Chairman of the Committee Senator Kazim observed that a new comprehensive law should be drafted which should cover all elements of protection from harassment. Raja Zafar-ul-Haq said that the Law Ministry should include balanced amendment in the bill to protect both genders from the harassment.During the meeting, the Committee also considered “the Constitution Amendment Bill 2013” moved by Senator Syeda Sughra Imam.She said that there should be an amendment in the Constitution which bars civil servant, judges to hold dual nationality as like Parliamentarians. To this, Special Secretary Law informed the committee that Citizenship Act, 1976 allows such officials to retain dual nationality. However, the Committee directed the Secretary Law to seek recommendations from all the provincial Law Ministries and apprised the committee in the next meeting.